About Us
Who We Are
Cromore Retreat is a family-run business on the Causeway Coast. Our five transparent bubble domes each sit in their own woodland clearing on the grounds of the old Cromore Estate. Four currently come with a private hot tub outside, and every suite has use of our forest sauna.
We opened the retreat in October 2024 after years of planning. The estate had lain dormant for more than a decade, and restoring it sits at the heart of our ambitions. It has been incredibly exciting to welcome people back to such a historic setting.
The estate
The house that named the town
Three centuries of families lived on this land before we put a dome on it. Here is the short version:
1734
A lease on the boat slip
The Earl of Antrim leases this shore to the Stewarts of Ballyleese, a branch of the royal Stewarts.
1770s
Cromore House is built
The sandstone house goes up on the rise above our woodland. It still stands, listed since 1976.
1792
Portstewart is founded
John Cromie founds the town and names it after his mother's family, those same Stewarts.
1886–1931
The Montagus at Cromore
Royal Navy officer Robert Montagu buys the house outright; the census lists thirty rooms. By then the estate ran to 7,000 acres.
2024
The first dome
We open five bubble domes in the estate woodland, each named after a family who held this land before us.
Dates from the Northern Ireland Historic Buildings record for Cromore House (HB03/07/011), Griffith’s Valuation and the Ordnance Survey Memoirs.
The names
Who each dome is named after
Stewart
1734
The Stewarts of Ballyleese, the family Portstewart itself is named after.
McDonnell
1734
The Earls of Antrim, who first leased this shore to the Stewarts.
Cromie
1792
John Cromie, founder of Portstewart and builder of the Cromore estate.
Wray
to 1834
G. A. Wray, who lived at Cromore House in the early 1800s.
Montagu
1886–1931
Robert Montagu, the Royal Navy officer who made Cromore his home.
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